We’ve added a new Realities toolkit to our website: Using diaries in research with people with dementia by Ruth Bartlett at University of Southampton. It describes her research which used written, photo and oral diaries in participatory research with people with dementia. A great introduction to the practical side of using this approach in your research! http://www.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre/realities/toolkits/diary/

We’ve added a new document to our series of Realities Toolkits all about using self-interviews, a research method developed by the ‘Media of Remembering’ team at University of Loughborough. The method involved participants using a small digital audio recorder to talk in their own time about their lives. The research team developed this method to give […]

The aim of this Realities toolkit is to help you plan properly for sending your interview/focus group recordings to somebody else for transcribing, and save you time by helping you do this more efficiently. It covers: budgeting for transcribing costs (see our cost calculator spreadsheet too) choosing a good transcriber managing the administrative side of the […]

“Creative” interviews are a form of interview that is qualitative, flexible, loosely or semi-structured (non-standardised) and involves the construction of data and knowledge through processes that can be seen as ‘creative’ in some way. We have two new resources on this topic: In this clip, Jennifer talks about creative interviewing: what it is; how to […]

We’ve now finished two ‘toolkits’ on different aspects of life as a mixed method researcher. The first one, ‘Practical considerations of leading and working on mixed method teams‘ we think of as a bit of a survival guide to working in mixed method projects: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/realities/resources/toolkits/mixed-method-working/ (let me know if you identify with any of the […]

This new toolkit, by Andrew Clark and Nick Emmel, draws on their experiences using walking interviews in outdoor urban environments, focusing on the practicalities of conducting these interviews and on ways of thinking about the data produced in the method, which we used as part of the Connected Lives project. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/realities/resources/toolkits/walking-interviews/ The Realities toolkit series […]

Dear allWe’ve recently collected together some of our online resources that people have told us they find useful either to support research methods taught modules, for postgraduate discussion seminars, or to pass on to PhD students. They are clustered in the areas of qualitative and mixed methods approaches in general with topics including visual methods, […]

This toolkit deals with the pitfalls that can make mixed methods projects more complicated than single-method studies. It covers practical challenges such as: the importance of teamwork; the need to allow for extra time; issues around data analysis and integration; and publishing from mixed methods projects. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/realities/resources/toolkits/mixed-method-working/

Advice, tips and suggestions from Helene Snee on using blogs as qualitative data sources: where to find them, how to choose them, how to analyse them and points to consider before you start. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/realities/resources/toolkits/blog-analysis/ Our other recent toolkits include: email interviewing, transcribing your data and music elicitation http://www.manchester.ac.uk/realities/resources/toolkits/

We’ve just uploaded a new Realities toolkit by Lucy Gibson drawing on experiences of using email interviews in a qualitative, mixed method study of older music fans in three popular music ‘scenes’. The toolkit concentrates on Lucy’s experiences of using email interviews, reflecting on how this method affected data collection and analysis, and discussing how […]